Max Verstappen praised for “most mature” reaction to George Russell clash

Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft has praised Max Verstappen for his reaction to the controversial incident with George Russell at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Verstappen finished 10th at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Sunday after colliding with Russell deliberately.

He was hit with a 10-second time penalty and three penalty points, putting him on 11.

It means Verstappen is now just one-point away from a race ban.

After the race, Verstappen released a statement on his Instagram account addressing the incident.

He wrote: “We had an exciting strategy and good race in Barcelona, [until] the Safety Car came out. Our tyre choice at the end and some moves after the restart fuelled my frustration, leading to a move that was not right and shouldn't have happened.”

While Verstappen didn’t directly apologise, he’s earned praise from Croft for how he’s handled it.

Speaking on the latest episode of the Sky F1 podcast, Croft said: “The thing is that Max is a character that wears his heart on his sleeve in this sort of way. He gets very het up if things aren’t going his way.

“I don’t want that to be his legacy in F1. I want us to remember things like Imola where he goes around the outside of the leader and takes the lead but he needs to get it under control because he can’t afford to keep doing it in the races. It will catch up with him eventually on that one and it did catch up with him on Sunday [in Barcelona].

“This is the most mature we’ve seen Max after an incident like this and that I think is to his credit.”

Verstappen has ‘apologised for the first time ever’

Verstappen has been involved in a number of high-profile incidents since joining F1 in 2015.

Most notably, his title battle with Lewis Hamilton in 2021 resulted in a number of dubious on-track moments.

In recent years, Verstappen was penalised twice at the Mexico City Grand Prix for aggressive defending against Lando Norris.

Ex-F1 driver Karun Chandhok thinks Verstappen has diffused the situation this time due to his response.

“George sort of batted it away towards the end of that interview with Rachel saying ‘look, I am not going to lose any sleep over it, we've got bigger problems that we need to understand why we weren’t as quick’,” Chandhok explained.

“I think the fact Max has come out and apologised for I think the first time ever. We didn’t hear that after Mexico. We didn’t hear that in the past with incidents with Lewis. I think it’ll mean that this actually take the sting out of what could have escalated. I think the sting would have taken out of it a little bit.”